Die Azteken-Mumie gegen den Menschen-Roboter

Yet another K. Gordon Murray import from Mexico aimed mainly at kids, but actually fun for anyone who fancies humanoid robots controlled by mad scientists, or ambulatory mummies. It entertains on about the same level as those old movie serials. Great black and white photography, nice ominous atmosphere. All the actors offer sincere performances, but deserving of special honourable mention is Luis Aceves Castaneda as the gleefully wicked Dr. Krupp; rarely has an actor enjoyed a mad scientist role so much! The English dubbing is another matter, but if you enjoy old-fashioned mummy/musty crypt horror films, you could do worse.

"RVAM"'s reputation preceded it. I first heard of it in one of those Medved style movie books, "The 50 Worst Movies Ever" or "The Golden Turkey Awards", or something like that. Every review of the film basically said that this movie was so bad that it would make you bleed from the eyes to watch it. So when the Exposed Film Society finally got around to showing it, I was anticipating the kind of cathartic experience that only a true cinematic stinker can provide.

However, "Robot" wasn't really all that bad.

Oh, this is definitely a "Z" film through and through. Some of the voice dubbing (as is usually the case for K. Gordon Murray imports) is awfully cheesy, and the movie itself seems to be structurally something of a Frankenstein, since a huge chunk of it seems to be footage from a previous "Aztec Mummy" movie, narrated with a voice-over by the leading man. A dead giveaway: anytime the question "Then what happened?" is asked more than twice in the dialog, you are looking at reassembled footage put together with little regard for plot coherence or momentum. In RVAM, "Then what happened?" or "What happened then?" is uttered at least four times in the 1st hour.

Even without the structural problems, the plot and dialog don't translate well to an older American audience. For instance, as the hero explains (and explains and explains) the back-story. he includes a remark about Doctor Krupp, "a doctor who suddenly turned into an evil master criminal" and began his quest for the treasure that the Aztec mummy guards. No background, no explanation, he just "suddenly turned evil". Obviously, this was aimed at a pretty undiscriminating audience.

The clincher, though, is the "Robot", the supposed "showcase" of this movie. This Robot is the worst robot special effect since "Undersea Kingdom" or even "Santa Claus Vs. The Martians". Compared to this hunk of junk, the Tin Man from the "Wizard Of Oz" looked like the Terminator chassis that chased Linda Connor through the foundry in T2. The Aztec Mummy himself is well designed and executed; he's recognizably undead, familiar enough to look like a mummy, and yet distinct from the "Boris Karloff" bandage collection familiar to most American audiences. But whoever designed the Robot in this followup had no feel for the concept...or no budget. They could at least have given him some knees, for heaven's sake.

In addition, the titular battle is terribly executed and lasts less than 60 seconds. (I've seen shoving matches on junior high playgrounds that are more convincing.) Then the movie basically just stops. That seems a bit of a rip off considering the amount of time the movie spends building up to the battle itself.

In spite of all these problems, the movie isn't horrible or incompetent the way a Coleman Francis film or a Larry Buchanan film was. Compared to "Monster A-Go-Go" or "Attack of The Eye Creatures", "RVTAM" is like a Coppola film. It's just kind of dull and boring and silly. The actors are competent (in a mannered B movie way) and reasonably photogenic; Dr. Krupp, in particular seems to be having a wonderful time as he leers and plots and capers about in his cape and "Phantom Of the Opera" suit. I often found myself rooting for him, in spite of his being the villain.

Anyway, I've seen much, much worse. File this with "Samson Vs The Vampire Women", under "interesting Mexican juvenile oddities".

the usual disclaimer - I do not give 1 star ratings to movies which are harmless, bad, low budget and silly, although they may deserve it. These films are often funny, and get rated 2-4 based sheerly on entertainment value - not as a representation of their exemplary film artistry. This film fits this model perfectly. It is a Mexican monster movie, riddled with voice-over narrative and extremely weak not-so-special effects. The makeup is not that bad, and the acting is sometimes quite entertaining, but this film is almost as silly as Aliens vs Predator and the script isn't half as slick (Aliens vs Predator might get a 1 from me, but I want to see it again before I commit).

The plot is ridiculous, but deliciously convoluted. If you've read this far, you must really want to know... A group of remarkably unscientific scientists comprise the main characters. Most of them are heroes - sort of - but one is (of course) mad, and quite perverse. This mad scientist invents a laughable nuclear powered robot (who looks a bit like the tin man from Wizard of Oz, but has a human face inexplicably located inside its head). An Aztec mummy, discovered by the same 'scientist' whose wife just so happens to have been an Aztec princess in a past life (don't ask), is pitted against the robot for the big "climax" the fight scene alone is enough to put the most stoic movie watcher on the floor in belly laughs.

For what its worth, given the budget and the utter silliness of the script, this is a very entertaining low budget goof ball monster movie. If you're into that sort of thing, go for it.

... although the more surreal aspects of this movie might slip by them. I can imagine a theater full of Mexican kids forty years ago just loving this stuff. The production level is on a par with the lesser Saturday Matinée serials of the 40s and 50s, and much of the film is footage from an earlier Aztec mummy film used as flashback, but what the hell. My favorite scene: the villain and two henchmen are stopped in a cemetery by the night watchman who holds them at gunpoint --- and proceeds to stand there doing nothing while one of the goons, in plain sight, calmly walks around behind him and conks him cold with a blackjack. The mind reels! Later on the poor chump gets fried by the radioactive clampers of the titular robot and runs screaming into the night, smoke pouring from the blanket draped over his shoulders, while the camera holds on him for an impossibly long time. A grungy black and white acid trip of a movie.

It's hard not to laugh at this movie. It's hard not to laugh knowing that somewhere, someone sat down and thought that having a robot fight a mummy would make for a good picture. And it might have been if the two title characters combined for more than 5 min of screen time. Unfortunately, most of the film consists of flashback scenes and some scientist's encounters with "The Bat". The robot, built out of sturdy cardboard and headlights, isn't even introduced till the movie is practically over and their monumental confrontation (the premise the movie is supposedly centered around) lasts about 30 sec.

I have a lot of questions for this movie. Why is the bad guy referred to as "The Bat"? Why does the mummy sound like a gorilla? Why did the robot need to have a human head? Why was there an endless Aztec dance scene? Why?